Teens rob Stratford jewelry store

By MariAn Gail Brown, STAFF WRITER

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

STRATFORD -- Three teenage robbers in ski masks burst into a busy Main Street jewelry store Saturday morning, brandishing a handgun and ordering all five customers and employees to get down on the floor and not make a move.

To show they meant business at the MJ Thomas jewelry store, they smashed a glass display case, police said. Then they ordered an employee to open the store's safe, police said, where they helped themselves to thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry.

"It's disturbing that something like this would happen, especially during the day" and with this number of people inside a business, Stratford Deputy Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour said after police arrested two of the three teenage robbers. More than half a dozen patrol officers and detectives were involved in the investigation. "We're especially happy that no was injured," Ridenhour said, adding that the department was "especially thankful to the citizen who followed (the suspects) and helped bring this to a successful resolution."

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A motorist traveling past the jewelry store spotted three people race out of the jewelry store in ski masks and called police from his cell phone, Ridenhour said, adding the motorist gave police a description of the suspects' dark green minivan and the direction in which it was traveling. Police intercepted the minivan, which led them on a mile-and-a-half chase that ended with the vehicle smashing into a utility pole on Canaan Road at Henry Avenue. One of the suspects was arrested at the scene. Another fled and forced his way into a Pond Street home, where he pushed an elderly resident to the floor before fleeing the house and being intercepted by police outside. Police declined to identify the two suspects they have in custody, while the third alleged robber, who drove the minivan, remains at large. That suspect was last seen in the Clover Street vicinity.

Police charged two of the suspects with first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and third-degree assault. In addition, one of the suspects, who injured one of the arresting officers during a brief struggle, is being charged with interferring with police.